Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have finally completed a long-discussed collaboration. Raising Sand, out Oct. 23 on Rounder Records, was produced by T Bone Burnett. The two have known each other for seven years and performed together at a Leadbelly tribute concert in 2004.

A few years ago, Alison Krauss' mother, an amateur painter, brought home a canvas so big that she knew she wouldn't be able to get it back out her door when she had framed it. That way, she reasoned, she knew she wouldn't work for anyone but herself.

Several writers have had more than a rooting interest in the outcome of the World Series. Rooting for the surprising Boston Red Sox have been novelists Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan, long-suffering fans. They're writing Faithful, a book that includes a season of e-mails about the ups and downs since Opening Day, to be released in December. King says a clause in their contract boosts their advances with a Sox championship; the last time the franchise won the World Series was in 1918.